1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for managing a message in a mobile terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for displaying a plurality of messages using a filter function.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a mobile terminal becoming increasingly popular, service providers in race to develop more convenient and capable of providing special functions. More particularly, as use of a message service such as a Short Message Service (SMS) and a multi-media message service are growing in a mobile terminal, functions that allow a user to view and manage the message service more conveniently are being studied.
For example, most of the conventional mobile terminals manage all transmitted/received messages using typical message classification boxes, such as a reception message box, a calling message box, a spam message box, a storage message box, and a permanent message box. That is, the mobile terminal separates and stores messages in the reception message box and the calling message box depending on whether each message is a received message or a calling message, and stores a relevant message in the spam message box, the storage message box, or the permanent message box.
As described above, since the conventional mobile terminal manages a message using a fixed message box, it is difficult for a user to view and manage a message according to the user's preference. The mobile terminal provides a limited function of changing an arrangement order of messages included in the message box, but simply changing the arrangement order of the messages has a limitation in meeting a user's various preferences.
In effort to improve the message management, a function called a conversation mode, which displays messages transmitted/received to/from a specific counterpart in a time order, is introduced recently. However, the conversation mode is a function of displaying only messages transmitted/received to/from only one selected counterpart, thus still fall short in meeting a user's various tastes and preferences.
Therefore, an improved message management function that can serve users' various needs in the mobile terminal is needed.